Nålbound hat in Aran Wool

On October 29, 2025 By CarynIn Craft

I spent last week watching as much of the Sweet Adeline International Convention webcast live as I could. This gave my fingers long stretches of idle time, which I filled with nålbinding a hat. My parents-in-law recently visited Ireland, and brought me back some Aran wool, which is lovely to nålbind because it tears apart easily and felts back together well.

Photo description: starting a hat with a cherry wood nal, Aran wool, and an Oslo stitch

At one point I ran out the door for school pickup and dropped my nal somewhere. Waiting in the car I crafted one out of a straw by cutting one end at an angle and making two slits at the other end to hold the yarn. It worked, but wasn’t as pleasant as my wool polished cherry wood nal. I’m glad I found it when I returned home.

Photo description: nal made from a plastic straw, convention notes in the background

I know to make wool items bigger than intended because as it is worn it will naturally felt and shrink some. I thought my initial circle was oversized, but as I stitched the band contracted, so I switched my plan and added increases, and decided to gather the first rows together to form the crown. Aran wool is very lightly spun Merino, and does not have the strength to draw together and hold, so I made a length of flax cord instead. The flax won’t break and will probably outlast the wool.

Photo description: long line flax twine on the nålbound surface of the hat

Photo description: crown of the hat gathered together tightly with flax twine

I didn’t want to finish the hat with decreases, so I stitched a free length of Oslo chain, spiraled it into a rosette, and stitched down the bottom edge.

Photo description: nalbound chain spiral with a steel yarn needle in the process of a securing stitch

Photo description: finished hat, before blocking

Camel hat

On December 30, 2024 By CarynIn Craft

I crocheted my hand spun camel yarn into a beanie style cap with ribbed band. I used a 2.25mm crochet hook and a double crochet for the fingering weight yarn, but found switching to a 3.25mm hook for the single crochet ribbing of the band made it feel more flexible and soft.

I thought I had plenty of yarn for a hat, but the yarn chicken squawked a challenge as I made the band. After I sewed the band together, I had only a few inches of yarn left. So there, yarn chicken.

Photo description: about 5” of yarn left after finishing off the camel yarn hat

Camel is a soft fiber, but my preparation still had some guard hairs and vegetable matter, so to make sure the inside was scratch free, I brushed it with a boars bristle brush. The brushing brought the soft fibers to the surface and gave it a lovely surface feel.

Photo description: bristle brush with the brushed inside of the crocheted hat

Photo description: finished hat crocheted from hand spun two ply camel yarn

I made this for my father in law, and I did make it a larger size. My Dad has reported that my wool hats shrink with wear (a natural fulling effect, I believe), so I didn’t want it to get too small. I may have gone too large though.

Hat stand

On November 20, 2024 By CarynIn Craft

I’ve needed a hat stand for awhile now, mostly to block hats after I wash them. I decided to make one using a pretty block of spalted tamarind and some hanger wire so I could use it at the craft fair where I was selling all those hats I’ve made.

Photo description: finished spalted tamarind wood block with wire hat form holding a crocheted gray beanie.

I wanted to just have the thick wire so that I could adjust the size based on the hat, but the hat looked a little strange with only vertical support. I added a spiral of aluminum wire, which helps the hat, but looks strange without the hat. Hm. It worked fine at the fair, but I will continue to fiddle with the form.

Photo description: form without the hat showing all the wire

Chaunacops fish

On November 14, 2024 By CarynIn Craft

Scrolling I saw reference to a Chaunacops fish, which is a deep ocean variety of sea toad that can be a lurid red. One of the commenters said it looked like their grandma crocheted it. Hm. Could I crochet one?

Photo description: screen shot of an image search for Chaunacops fish, with four images and image sources showing light pink to bright red walking fish

I’m in hat making mode, so rather than make a stuffed animal, I decorated a red beanie with fins, tail, and mouth.

Photo description: bright red sea toad hat with embroidered white mouth and sew-on googly eyes

I didn’t do a pattern, this just was a fun little experiment. I do like how well a single crochet ribbing does for making fins.

It amuses me greatly.

Spiral start in crochet

On November 13, 2024 By CarynIn Craft

Another way to start a beanie is making a spiral. The good part of the spiral is that there is no seam where a row starts, so it works well with variegated yarn with a long stretches of color. The tricky part is you need to use stitch markers to mark the beginning of the round to get your increases correct, and you need to decrease stitch size at the brim before weaving in the end.